The present invention relates to a fishing spinning reel including a switch mechanism for switching a drag mechanism for applying a rotation resistance to a spool to an operating state and a nonoperating state.
There is known a fishing spinning reel including, at inside of a reel main body, a switch mechanism for switching a drag mechanism for applying a rotation resistance to a spool into an operating state in which a drag force to a spool is applied, and a nonoperating state, the nonoperating state including a state of allowing a spool to rotate completely freely and a state of operating a drag force by a sub-drag mechanism. For example, JP-B-6-97933 discloses a fishing spinning reel capable of switching a drag mechanism to operating state/nonoperating state by operating a switch lever pivotably supported in a front and rear direction of an upper portion of a reel main body. Further, the switch mechanism is engaged with a return mechanism capable of automatically returning from the nonoperating state to the operating state when a handle is operated to wind.
The return mechanism disclosed in JP-B-6-97933 mentioned above is installed to spaces on an opposed tooth face side of a drag gear (face gear) mounted to a handle shaft and on a side of a lid plate constituting the reel main body, and therefore, there poses a problem that the reel main body is large-sized.
Hence, in order to resolve the problem, Japanese Patent No. 3542284 discloses a fishing spinning reel capable of downsizing a reel main body by fixing a cam wheel to an end portion of a handle shaft (tooth face side of a face gear) and installing a return mechanism to a position remote from the face gear (a comparatively unoccupied space of the end portion of the handle shaft on the face gear tooth face side).
Meanwhile, generally, the return mechanism is a mechanism for returning a switch lever automatically to an initial position (a position of a state of operating a drag mechanism) by a winding operation of a handle, and is constructed by a mechanism of returning the switch lever to the initial position by contacting (kicking) a member (kick member) rotated by the winding operation of the handle along with a winding operation thereof to an engaging member.
In the return mechanism disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3542284 mentioned above, a rotational force of the handle (return force of a switch lever) is transmitted to a first lever 52 supported by a switch lever 45 for controlling to engage and disengage with and from a lock ring on a spool shaft to return to a drag operating state through the cam wheel 42 fixed to the end portion of the handle shaft, a pivotable cam follower (engaging member) 58 urged by a second toggle spring 60, a second lever 53 and the like.
However, according to the above-described structure, members constituting the switch mechanism and the return mechanism are only installed by utilizing an unoccupied space at inside of the reel main body and the reel main body is not subjected to thinned formation/compact formation basically by effectively utilizing a dead space at inside of the reel main body.